Monaghan Harps Lotto: Numbers 5, 11, 23 and 25. Jackpot of €4,300 not won. Residual prizes: €100 Dónal Sherry c/o Paddy Donnelly; €40 Nan Donoghue c/o Ann Treanor; €40 Brendan McMahon c/o Séamus Treanor; €40 Martin McNally c/o Séamus Treanor. Jackpot for Sunday, February 8 is €4,400 and Hugh and Maria McKenna are on duty. Tickets can be left into the clubhouse from 7.45pm each Sunday. All support for our Lotto is greatly appreciated. It was great to see Patsy Kearns back in his old Lotto MC role last Sunday; you’re always more than welcome.

 

Charity match: The presentation of the proceeds from our New Year’s Day charity match took place in front of a large crowd in the clubhouse last Sunday night. We were proud to present a cheque for €7,210 to the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust (KBRT). This impressive figure was well up on recent years and is testament to the work done by a large number of people and the willingness of people to provide support to the family of Co Monaghan native James Finnegan, who died tragically in Korea in December. The KBRT was set up by the Bell family in 2013 in memory of Kevin, following his tragic death in New York. It has since helped repatriate the bodies of over 60 Irish people who have died abroad and it has recently been given charity status. We were happy to be joined by members of the Finnegan family and representatives of the KBRT, including Kevin’s father Colin, who thanked everyone involved in the fundraising, saying he had been blown away by the generosity of Monaghan people in the last number of weeks. Owen Connell from the organising committee and club chairman Seán McKenna welcomed all our guests and emphasised the importance of our long-running charity match to the club and community. We would like to thank all the club members who took part and all local business people who provided any support. Special thanks to the Morgan family for their generous €500 donation from the Kieran Morgan Memorial Fund. Well done also to Dónal Sherry, who kindly donated his €100 Harps Lotto prize on the night to the KBRT, and to Rose and Paddy Donnelly, who donated their seller’s prize.

 

Arch Club: We are delighted to again host Monaghan Arch Club in our clubhouse at Gavan Duffy Park this evening (Thursday, February 5) from 8 to 10pm. This is our sixth year in a row to host the Arch Club and we look forward to another night of entertainment, including music and speeches, including one, of course, from our own Hugh Coyle. All help would be appreciated.

 

Membership: Membership fees for 2015 are being maintained as follows: €20 per adult, €10 per child or €50 for a family of two adults and any number of children. Money can be paid to registrar Dermot Coyle, who will be available to collect subscriptions in the clubhouse again this Sunday from 9pm.

 

GAA Draw: Thanks to everyone who has supported the Harps in the GAA National Club Draw.

 

Sympathy: The club sends condolences to the family of Philomena Hughes, who passed away last Saturday and whose Funeral Mass took place on Monday morning, at which club members formed a guard of honour. Philomena was a great friend, supporter and neighbour of Monaghan Harps and was a popular regular at our Lotto draws on Sunday nights, as well as a ticket seller, always willing to help out in the Shopping Centre or on Saturday mornings. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam.

 

Upcoming events: As well as the Arch Club night, tonight, we have other events coming up. The presentation of medals to our successful juvenile teams from 2014 has had to be rescheduled from its planned date of February 13, but a new date will be announced soon, so keep an eye on club notes, website, etc. We are also preparing to host the second Darkness into Light Monaghan 5km walk/run on the morning of Saturday, May 9.

 

Championship draw: We have been drawn to play Castleblayney in Round 1A of the 2015 Senior Football Championship.

 

Coaching: Monaghan Coaching & Games Development are running a series of Coach Education programmes and there are also a number of coaching workshops coming up in Cloghan in the next few weeks, while booking is now open for the Ulster GAA Annual Coaching Conference. See the Monaghan GAA website for more details.

 

County teams: Well done to Neil McAdam and the county senior footballers in Saturday evening’s NFL opener against Tyrone in Omagh and good luck against Cork in Castleblayney this Sunday. Well done to the Monaghan U-21s, with Kevin Loughran at centre-back, who beat Louth in the Shamrock Cup and play Tyrone this weekend.

 

Colleges: Hard luck to Éimhín Morahan, John Mulligan, Darragh Hannon, Shane McMahon and the St. Macartan’s College MacRory Cup team, who lost their play-off against St. Pat’s, Maghera last Saturday. Good luck to Mustafa Gamal, who is part of the DCU freshers team who beat Cork IT last week and play a championship quarter-final against UCC today (Thursday) and Michael Galligan, who is also in action with DIT freshers.

 

Scór: Scór Sinsir is due to take place in Corcaghan on Saturday, February 21. Anyone who wants to represent the club is asked to contact Gerard Clerkin on 086 8535992.

 

Refereeing: Anyone interested in taking up refereeing at any level is asked to contact a committee member. For more information on the new ‘Put Your Whistle Where Your Mouth Is’ recruitment campaign, see the Monaghan GAA website.